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Vehicle customisations

Thought I'd start a thread about vehicles cuz no-one seems to do much about the vehicles. I only repaint mine. Usually to just dirty them down a bit. But then there's improvements. Like this swoop bike I did. I hated that missile firing wing so I sawed that sucker right off and the repainted the whole bike to suit my tastes.

Originally posted by Obi-Don I never thought about cutting off the missile wing.Thats looks good.I will have to try it with one of my spares.

You don't even need to cut it off, it can be pulled right off and then filled with putty. I leave mine on because it holds the vehicle against the wall I have it floating next to (the Power F/X R2-D2's backgrop).

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

Thanks Caesar, but the credit really goes to Hasbro for putting it on Deluxe Fett's backpack, I was just lucky that it was there and I didn't have to punch through it when I crudely mounted the wing onto the bike.

Jargo, I can't wait to see that Y-wing. Hasbro did a fairly good job with that vehicle, but I bet you did a lot better judging by your swoop there.

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

I couldn't get hold of a camera so I just shoved the Y-wing in the scanner All's I've done is throw thinned down black,grey and brown enamel gloss and matt paint at it then wipe it off with Q-tips. The darker more detailed parts on the nose are where I pressed and rolled the paint soaked Q-tip. I repainted the astro droid with grey and yellow paint then dirtied him too. Finally I took an old size 8 artists sable paintbrush and loaded it with paint than bashed the brush against my finger to splash little marks of grime over the nose.

It's down to taste really how much dirt you add. But the trick in getting something approaching the ILM look is to make the paint pigment rich, but very thinned so you get the oily look. Then slap it all over and into all the creases nooks and crannies and only wipe it off where natural wear would clean it up. Much like a bike or a car really. Grime collects in the grooves and slots of an engine and around the working parts. Also the side that is most dirty on the cockpit is where the most humans have been treading dirty boots or smudging grease as they help the pilot in and out.

I like this look on my ships, not the clean with a few random placed black splodges that hasbro gives us. Admittedly the grungey look isn't for everyone and some would have coniptions if they saw what I've done to my 'exclusive' ship.

Wow, that's really cool! I know what you mean about Hasbro's version of weathering details, what drives me nuts the most is when they dye the plastic all splotchy instead of giving it a paint wash. Sometimes it looks acceptable, but it always looks like someone dropped playdoh on the ground and then made it into a vehicle.

Did you intend to have the R2 match the vehicle colors, or was that a little surprise once you were done?

Darth Vader is becoming the Mickey Mouse of Star Wars.

"In Brooklyn, a castle, is where dwell I"

The use of a lightsaber does not make one a Jedi, it is the ability to not use it.

I found while I was painting that most of my tins of paint had set solid in the cold of last winter. For some reason enamel paints don't like the cold. So all I had was purple or yellow. The purple was too runny and all streaky and wouldn't give me a flat finish, so I ditched it and went for the yellow, which was much brighter until I smothered the droid in 'oil'.
I'll probably make him a different color when I finish the ship with a couple of melted and scratched in blast marks and finish dirtying the engines and those rear heat sinks(?).

I'm tempted to customise my second Y-wing after seeing how well this one turned out but my partner would kill me if I 'ruined' both I'll still try to get proper photos done of this cuz you can't see how it really looks. And the colors don't show up too well either. There's some nice patchy shading that looks like rust with oil on top and then scratched back to the metal in places. Multi-layer painting.

*Of course the ultimate customising dream would be if they released a larger scale Falcon. What couldn't you do to make that baby look movie authentic? I'm drifting off into wishful thinking zone now, saliva drooling down my chin..... *